The Truth about Will Vandom
by Littlecoop10
Summary: Will has been experiencing nightmares all her life and finally she will find out why. The Guardians will face a new foe as well as romance in this story of being able to find yourself whilst still being the you that you've always known. When all hope is lost, the girls will need friendship, courage and bravery to save one of their own. This will be a long story and WillxCaleb.
1. Chapter 1

_A/N: Hi guys, this is a fanfiction based a year after the second season of the tv series._

A couple of small little things before you read my story.  
1) This is mainly a WillxCaleb fic so for this story to work you must imagine that Cornelia and Caleb broke up and so did Matt and Will (although amicably).  
2) Will discovered her powers in the same way as the TV series, except she was saving Caleb instead of Matt.  
3) All the other pairings are the same.

Chapter 1

Elyon was worried. As she watched her people dance, sing and be jovial, she could see that one of her closest friends was not enjoying the party as much as she should. In fact, it looked like Will would rather be anywhere else than where she was right now, which was strange, as the celebrations were in name of her and the other Guardians – it had been a year since Nerissa's and Phobos' iconic defeat.

Elyon had noticed that the leader of the Guardians had been quieter and more withdrawn lately, perhaps not unusual since everyone was revising for their upcoming exams, but definitely not welcome. Elyon liked to see the girls as often as possible, so they organised a bi-monthly outing in either Meridian or Heatherfield where they could all get together and just chat like normal teenagers. However, it seemed to Elyon, that Will was not her usual self the last time she saw her and she certainly wasn't herself tonight.

The Queen did wonder if Will's strange behaviour could be accounted for the fact that her and Matt had split up after Will discovered that he and Cornelia were in love and wanted to be together. It had been rather controversial at the time; Will had been on Matt's phone when a text from Cornelia came through. The text was rather flirty and when Will confronted Matt, he told her everything – from how he and Cornelia had been in love for months to the dirty business of Cornelia breaking up with Caleb just the day before. Will had said that there were no hard feelings, she even gave them her blessing, but Elyon couldn't think of any other reason why the red head was so out of sorts. The young Queen had spoken to Caleb about it, asking him how he was affected by the break-up between him and Cornelia but even he, who was rather heart-broken when it first happened, said that he was over it because he knew that Cornelia wasn't 'the one'.

That left her with a conundrum. Should she confront Will about her odd behaviour or should she stop being such a busy body? Elyon was distressed about the situation, but, as she thought of the red head's fiery temper, she reasoned that there probably wasn't anything wrong. Nobody who ever troubled Will would ever trouble her again, Will always made sure of that. With that thought in mind, the young Queen went to greet some more of her guests.

How wrong she was though because, in fact, there was something wrong with the Guardian Leader, something very very wrong.

"I'm so glad that we can be together like this." Cornelia said into the muscular chest of her boyfriend, who she was currently dancing with, "Pretending to not feel something for you was so hard."

"I know what you mean, and I love that Will and Caleb accept us, that we can still all be friends and comrades." Replied Matt, who was staring lovingly at his girlfriend. The lovers had been terrified that their positions as both protectors of the Universe and friends would be damaged by their relationship, when it actually made the bond between the group evolve and grow to new strengths.

It had been a precarious time for all individuals involved; everyone on tenterhooks as to when one of the parties would explode and start shouting or screaming at someone to give them answers, but it never came. Instead, Will and Cornelia had never been closer which in turn made the whole atmosphere become much calmer and nicer to be in for the girls and their significant others.

It was a bit if an odd response from Will, who had previously stated that her and Matt were in it for the long haul but if she was asked what she thought of the whole situation, you could hear her say, "Matt and I weren't going to get married, have loads of kids and a dog. I can see that he and Cornelia are perfect for each other and I want them to be happy. I haven't loved Matt like how you should love your boyfriend for a long time but instead, I love him like a brother and so when he told me about him and Cornelia, I was so ecstatic for them that I recommended a great pizza place so that he could take her out on their first official date."

For Caleb, it was harder to accept the news, he had loved Cornelia. Maybe he wasn't in love with her, but he had certainly thought that she was something special. Once he came round to the idea, Matt and Caleb got back into their usual workout routines where they would spar, practise with weapons and talk about guy stuff.

"Awh, look at those two! Aren't they just the sweetest thing." Exclaimed Hay Lin.

"Yeah, if by sweetest you mean the taste of each other's saliva. Then sure, that's sweet. Sweet and tasty!" Came the deadpan response of Irma as she squirmed at the public displays of affection that her friends were giving each other.

Taranee, who had overhead the two girls, came back with her own response. "It's just because you're jealous Irma. You want someone to share saliva with too!" At that, Irma blushed and her two friends both giggled at the sight of Irma trying to think of a quick witted remark to that one. Unfortunately for her, she couldn't come up with anything and so by the time the three of them were joined by Cornelia, Matt, Caleb and Elyon, all three girls were laughing so hard they had unshed tears in their eyes.

"What are you laughing about?" Asked the very confused Cornelia. She was used to the girls antics but she didn't see anything that could be remotely humorous, let alone downright hilarious.

Through her laughter, Taranee was able to say, "It...haha...It...haha...it's nothing. Just something that I said about Irma!"  
"I'd leave them to it, if I were you." Responded Matt, he was also used to the jokes that the girls had between themselves; it could be quite funny seeing all five of them rolling on the floor of the Silver Dragon and having to quickly make themselves presentable before Yan Lin comes in to see what all the noise was about.

Suddenly, however, the girls were sobered of their laughter by an ear-piercing scream so full of despair and terror that the whole of the Meridian was deafened by the silence that followed.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Will had always loved life; in fact, she thought that her life was pretty awesome. Her mum was annoying sometimes but she was always there when Will needed her, she would always listen to the teen's problems and vice versa. The two worked in perfect harmony around the house, knew each other steps and how they liked their tea. Will had great friends that loved her and wanted her to stick around. She was a Guardian, which in itself was the most amazing experience she had ever had. The nearly being destroyed on a regular basis wasn't great but the skills and memories she gained were nothing but exceptional.

However, for Will, there was always something that she couldn't quite figure out. She knew that her parents loved her, even if they didn't love each other. Her friends were amazing, were always there for her and trusted her completely as their leader. But Will had always felt that there was something she was missing, some big part of her life that was just out of reach. She was so close she could smell, even taste it but it was too far to touch. She couldn't discern what it was but she knew that her nightmares had something to do with it.

The nightmares started when she was young, just little things, like her mum shouting at her or her dad not being able to take her to the park when he visited her. They got worse when she was a bit older, her mum being killed or a friend being kidnapped and never to be seen again. When Will became a Guardian, the nightmares again got worse. This time it was either her torturing and killing her loved ones or she would be shown a horrific disaster where thousands of people were killed and injured, homes, schools and hospitals destroyed, lives ruined.

Whilst having these nightmares, Will could hear herself saying the most awful things, "I want to make the person scream, scream in agony when I press a knife into their flesh. I won't be happy until their penance is paid and a pound of flesh is sitting on my desk, a pound that has been carved out of this useless piece of shit that I HATE." And because of this, the red head would wake up screaming, tears streaming down her face at what she'd seen her nightmare self do.

Will never told her peers or parents of these awful dreams, she was ashamed at what they'd think of her if they knew what these nightmares were about. After the first time Will woke up screaming, she became cautious about going to sleep the next night. When she woke up again, screaming in desperation for the nightmare to stop, Will knew she'd never have peace again.

Now, instead of sleeping throughout the night, Will tries to occupy herself with other activities. She often tries to nap (nobody can live without any sleep), reads books (she thinks she's probably read about 700 books in the last three years), watching movies on her laptop and going for long strolls through Heatherfield.

Will found that when Nerissa plagued hers and the other girls' minds that it was respite from the awful images that she had been seeing all her life. Even though she didn't like that Nerissa was controlling her mind, it was better than the images that her vicious mind concocted for her to watch on loop whenever she fell asleep.

There were no commonalities between the nightmares; each one a different scenario and scene, except for one figure that had always been there, even when Will was a child. The image of a woman with beautiful red hair – much the same as Will's – with a sceptre and a rich, mahogany voice that drew Will deeper into the nightmare, was the only recurring theme in the dreams. She was always beautiful looking, a new outfit and hairstyle in every nightmare, but it was her that always made the dream Will do the heinous acts that tormented real Will's conscience. It was this woman that told dream Will to, "plunge the knife deeper" and, "finish her off – you know you want to."

Will was now extra cautious to not fall asleep in front of anybody so that they didn't hear her screams. However, when Will suddenly woke to the sound of her terror filled wail with hundreds of people staring at her, she couldn't help but reprimand herself for her stupidity. Of all the times for her to fall asleep, the celebration in Meridian for the defeat of Phobos and Nerissa was definitely the worst place it could've happened.

Out of the crowd burst her friends, uneasiness written across their faces as they took in Will's state. Her eyes were red-rimmed where silent tears were streaming down her face; the skinny face and body that everyone had associated with the girl now looked to be a sure sign that the girl hadn't been eating right for many months and the anguish in the beautiful bronze eyes of the fearless leader let everyone who was looking at her, the Queen included, that something was terribly wrong. It abruptly hit the Queen that Will's behaviour was not associated with her break-up with Matt but something much worse.

"What you all looking at?" Will shouted to the Meridian people and her friends, "Nobody seen someone have a nightmare before, huh?" If it were possible, the onlookers were stunned into even more silence by the Guardian's outburst.

Elyon slowly approached Will, cautiously holding her hands up as if to say, 'I come in peace'. She said, "Will, shall we take you to one of the bedrooms. Calm you down a little."

"That's a brilliant idea; come along Will, all you need is a good sleep." Exclaimed Cornelia, the others nodding in their agreement.

Will's head snapped towards Cornelia, an un-readable expression on her face. In a deathly low voice, Will said, "Never. Tell. Me. What. To. Do. Again. I do not need to sleep; I do not need to calm down. I need you all to get out of my way before I do something I regret, is that clear?"

Her friends' faces were shocked; Will had never spoken to them like that before. Even as the leader of the Guardians, Will was always fair and took into account others opinions, in fact, she relished in having ideas being bounced off of her.

Irma swooped in, trying to diffuse the situation, "Okay, now you're being crankier than Cornelia, on a good day. You may be a spitfire red head but even I don't speak to Corny like that! Let's just go, have a glass of water and a chat, hmm?"

"No." Was Will's reply before she marched forward, through the crowd and out the front door of the palace, all the while her friends' gobsmacked at what had just occurred. Will didn't want to hurt her friends but tonight had been a close call to them finding out about her biggest secret – a secret which she didn't want anyone to know about. As Will opened a fold in the Veil, someone on a far away planet was very pleased with what had transpired this evening, very pleased indeed.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Will made it home safely through the veil, at one point she thought she may have been too emotional to get the co-ordinates of the portal right, but she had landed just down the street from her home in an alleyway. She was pissed as she walked through her front door, looking to the clock which read _23:44_ , she didn't know how she could have been so stupid as to fall asleep at the party, especially one that was so important to all of them.

Will had transformed back into her human form once she arrived in Heatherfield, so she decided that as it was late and she didn't want to disturb her mum (who thought she was at Irma's for a sleepover), the red-haired girl was going to change into some comfy leggings, a sports bra and a waterproof jacket so she could go for a night-time run to try and release some of the frustrations built up after the party fiasco.

Will was never scared about meeting a dodgy guy on the street when she left the confines of her home at weird hours of the morning, the brown-eyed girl was fortunate to be the leader of the Guardians as it meant she could transform whenever she wanted, giving her a sense of confidence when she walked or ran the eerily quiet streets of Heatherfield at night.

The Leader of the Guardians knew that her fellow W.I.T.C.H. members would be around early in the morning to try and talk to her about what had happened, so she needed this release of energy before being hounded by the others tomorrow.

As Will left the apartment, she read the clock again. _00:01._ It was already tomorrow, and Will really had no idea what she was going to say. She knew she couldn't tell the others what her outburst was about, they'd never understand the dark imagery and the feelings that she got from seeing the dreams, the residual need to do exactly what the mystery woman told her to do.

No, they'd never understand. It was better to protect them, to keep telling them everything was okay and that she was fine then to let them know that their good and fearless leader was neither good nor fearless.

For Will was entirely fearful that as she got older, the reason she didn't want to sleep wasn't because of the hideous dreams showing her scenes that would make any grown man cry, it was that she had started agreeing with the mysterious woman, had started craving the feeling of blood on her hands. She had started wanting to fall asleep just so she could be bad for once, instead of the goody-two-shoes leader that everyone knew her to be.

Will was entirely and utterly terrified that the next threat to Earth and Meridian wouldn't be someone like Phobos or Nerissa, but instead it would be _her_. Her and the mysterious woman.

As Will was running down a particularly shifty backroad, she spotted two guys in a passageway between a couple of flat blocks, looking entirely like they were doing something they shouldn't be doing. One guy, the larger of the two, was definitely handing something to the other, Will couldn't make out what it was clearly but she had a sneaky suspicion that it was probably drugs.

Suddenly the smaller guy spotted her staring at them, "Oi, you. You girl. What the hell do you think you're doing, looking at me like that."

Will couldn't for the life of her think about how she'd been looking at the man, but it wasn't as if she was ogling him, more being nosy, but when she thought about it, if he were a regular drug user, as it looked like he was, it was no wonder he was paranoid about a mere 16-year-old girl.

The other, bigger, guy, held the paranoid one back, whispering something to him that sounded akin to, "Calm down, mate, she's only a kid."

It seemed to do the trick as Will kept running past them, neither deciding to follow her. But it struck Will that, to the rest of the world, she was just a kid. To her mum Will was her baby, a big-ass grown baby her mum would admit, but her baby that was taking exams and had had her first break-up. To her teachers she was merely an underachieving teen with a whole lot of angst. To her friends outside the girls, Matt and Caleb she was just another person they knew that didn't know what to do with the rest of their life, that would probably get stuck in Heatherfield with 3 kids and an awful job with a husband that did fuck-all.

But Will is so much more. At least she could be. She's a Guardian, the leader of an elite team that protects the whole Universe. But even that seemed to be on the decline recently, and with all the mumbo-jumbo in her head with these nightmares, Will really didn't know what she was. She had always been an effective leader of the team, but she reasoned that if an attack happened now, she didn't know how she'd cope. The nightmares had steadily got worse as she got older, but now with all of her thoughts being jumbled and her ideals on life changing so rapidly, Will didn't really know anything anymore.

Did she even want to be a Guardian? Could she be do her job properly when there's a voice in her head that says, . KILL. She really didn't know.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

After Will made her sudden exit from the party, Elyon encouraged the rest of the guests to keep enjoying the festivities, citing that the Guardian Leader was merely stressed from her school work on Earth. But Elyon knew this wasn't the case.

As the party commenced once again, Elyon ushered the other Guardians and the boys into her office so that they could speak about what had just transpired.

"What the HELL was that?" Cornelia exclaimed as soon as they had all entered the Queen's office and the door had been shut to stop any unwanted conversation being heard by the people of Meridian, "She was so angry at me. I've never seen her _that_ angry before."

"I honestly have no idea." Replied Matt, who was comforting his girlfriend as she seemed pretty shook up from the whole encounter.

"She went berserko, that's what happened." Said Irma, pacing slightly from one end of the room to the other. "Completely and utterly insane that girl is."

"I think it's a little more than that, Irma. Will wouldn't just snap at Cornelia over nothing, there's obviously something going on." Taranee said with a meaningful look at Irma, "You can't just call her insane and jump on the moral high horse like you've never had an outburst before."

Irma looked shamefully away, "Yeah, you're right Taranee, as always."

Elyon went to sit down in her chair behind the desk, thinking on what had transpired just minutes before. They'd all been having fun, celebrating a year of peace, but that peace had been broken tonight by the screaming of her dear friend.

"I think we need to take a minute to think about all of this." Elyon declared, "Just think about exactly what happened here tonight. This is not something that we shouldn't have seen coming. Will has been acting strangely for months, and at first maybe we all assumed that it was because of the break-up, but it's clear that Will was far more relieved to be out of her relationship with Matt then any one of us would have guessed."

The whole group contemplated Elyon's words. It was true, Will had been acting strangely. And she definitely hadn't been looking her best either over the last little while. She always had bags under her eyes, which she tried to cover with make-up, and she'd been getting skinnier and skinner.

"What are we going to do about it then?" Asked Caleb, "If there's something seriously wrong, how exactly can we bring it up with her when she'll probably just bite our heads off?"

"I could ask Grandma to speak to her." Said Hay Lin.

"No." Elyon said, massaging her temples as she could feel a headache coming on, "It has to be us."

"Why should we?" Cornelia butted in, looking up from Matt's chest, "She humiliated us all tonight."

"Because, Cornelia, we are her friends. She needs our help and she's damn well going to get it." Replied Elyon, "Besides, after the way she took yours and Matt's affair so well, I think you can at least do this for her."

It was Cornelia's turn to look sheepish that night. As usual, the girls had retreated to their petty former selves, arguing with each other and jumping to conclusions, which never happened when Will was around as she was the one to ground them all. Bring out the best in each of them and tell them off when one went too far.

The girls weren't friends before Will had come to Heatherfield and their lives had been turned upside down, and they often wondered whether it was Will herself that was the glue to the Guardians actually working together. The girls would never have chosen to be friends, or even stay friends despite being Guardians, so it was definitely the best choice that Will was the leader. She made them work, so whenever she wasn't around everything kind of went to shit.

"So, what shall we do?" Asked Irma, "Corner her in the corridor and make her tell us her problems, otherwise we'll use our powers on her. I don't exactly think that'll have the desired effect."

"No, I think it will be best if I speak to her." Elyon said, standing up from her chair and going to look out the window at her Kingdom, "Either she tells me her problems or I'll go to the Oracle and tell him to reassign the heart of Kandrakar to someone else. My people need protection and right now Will cannot offer it to me."


End file.
